Friday, December 19. 2008

Google Science Data Service to Close Before it Launches

Officially called Google Research Datasets, the service was going to offer scientists a way to store the massive amounts of data generated in an increasing number of fields. About 30 test datasets had already been uploaded. This certainly had potential for managing huge geospatial datasets.

The service will close in January per an e-mail to its beta testers.

- Wired

The Challenge to Newly Named PB Business Insight: Define the Synergy

Andy Hayler notes that Pitney-Bowes will officially settle on its software division name on January 1. It's Pitney Bowes Business Insight (PBBI). And, while he's impressed with the parts that make it up, Group 1 and MapInfo, he sees a challenge for the newly branded division:

Critical to how well growth targets are met will be clear positioning of the new organisation. Group 1 and Mapinfo have both been around for some time, and so it is important that PBBI clearly articulate what the combined offering brings to customers i.e. why the combined group is more than just the sum of its parts. If it can make more of the geospatial connection than it currently does in its marketing then it could be interesting, since clearly the kind of value queries like "tell me all the houses in this area that lie within a flood plain" will only work properly if you have good quality data, and the combination of GIS capability and strong data quality software could be a compelling proposition.

- IT Director

Using LBS iPhone Apps for PR

There's a new, free app for the iPhone that provides details about Washington DC aimed at inauguration goers. Besides maps and tourist info it includes a countdown to the big day and a proximity tool that tells you how far you are from where the event will ultimately be held. Cool.

Who's behind it? A DC law firm and a PR firm. Patton Boggs and Qorvis Communications.

This is a strange new world of "location-based advertising." The moto of the PR effort: Qorvis and Patton Boggs, Navigating Washington.

This application was developed (they call it "mobilized" by PointAbout.

- AppScout

Bruce Joffe: Electoral College has to Go

Bruce Joffe (GIS consultant in California and longtime Directions Magazine contributor) has a Speak Out article in the Baltimore Chronicle.

Satire on Geography Knowledge Too Believable

I'm not a regular reader of the Huffington Post but on Monday it ran a satire piece about Americans knowledge of geography. The funniest bit:

"On the whole, these figures should be construed as somewhat disappointing," Gallup spokesman Keith Ventner said. "Especially the two percent that believed the United States was located on the map's color-coded inset legend. I think we as a nation likely could have done without seeing that."

Apparently, many of the commenters thought the article was factual. I bet they didn't do too well on the really hard quizzes in school that at the beginning had the statement: "Read this entire test before beginning" and failed to do so.

Harvard's AfricaMap Launches

The online resource was featured this week at a Digital Humanities Fair and described in the Crimson.

Ben Lewis, a senior GIS specialist at Harvard’s Center for Geographic Analysis (who I know from his days at ATS), did the demos of app which launched two weeks ago. I love the idea of bringing tech to often tech-shy humanities types.

The site is a Google Map-based app "based on the Harvard University Geospatial Infrastructure (HUG) platform, and was developed by the Center for Geographic Analysis to make spatial data on Africa easier for researchers to discover and explore."

The source code will eventually be made open source which will be valuable as the app is based on SDI ideals and open standards.

AfricaMap aims to augment existing initiatives for globally sharing spatial data and technology such as GSDI (Global Spatial Data Infrastructure). AfricaMap makes use of OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) compliant web services such as WMS (Web Map Service), emerging open standards such as WMS-C (cached WMS), and standards-based metadata formats, to enable AfricaMap data layers to be inserted into existing data infrastructures.